Nokia Has Done Its Job With the Lumia 920 & 820

With multiple tweets of NOK stocks falling by over 10%, I couldn’t resist looking up the detailed view by some of my favorite publications covering the launch of Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 across the world today. After 18 months of a Microsoft tie-up, Nokia is unveiling the 2nd gen Lumia products powered by Windows 8 platform today. Two devices, the Lumia 820 (successor to the 800?) and the Lumia 920 (successor to the 900) have been revealed. And they are beautiful. Period.

With all the hate being thrown at Nokia for either not giving the out of the world hardware, or no specific pricing details or avoiding a deep dive into Windows Phone 8 features, we are forgetting one thing, Microsoft is going to be out next month with the Windows Phone 8 and that’s where these questions were always going to be answered. Even before we walked into Nokia World hype, we knew that Windows 8 is an October event. We can’t compare Nokia + Microsoft with an Apple, who does its hardware and software all in-house. Apple has its strengths, Nokia+Microsoft have theirs.

Nokia has done its job on the hardware front. No one can deny that. The new PureView technology with Optical Image Stabilization is a step forward, wireless charging has been neglected ever since the Palm Pre line-up failed and Nokia need not significantly rework a great design, they retain what is good about the Lumia series. The screen on the Lumia 920 boats a resolution of 1280×768 and has brought a whole new technology on the table (Super Sensitive Touch with Synaptics) that allows one to use the device even with their gloves on. This is something that has been missing on capacitive touchscreens for a while now and we need to stop being busy criticizing Nokia and see the innovation that is right in front of our eyes. Nokia also packs in WiFi ‘n’, NFC and a Dual-Core processor on the 920, that does qualify for a top-tier smartphone.

Stephen Elop has mentioned already that the new Lumia phones would launch in Q4 which is right around the corner and there is no reason why we shouldn’t expect them to do well this holiday season. Microsoft does have some questions to answer when it goes official with the Windows 8 next month and as much as we love to see Nokia innovating, we can’t deny that it cannot succeed alone. Microsoft, your turn!